Abstract

Magic and witchcraft beliefs play an important role in the lives of billions of people all around the world. Yet unlike religious beliefs, very little research has examined the social and psychological basis of these beliefs. In this talk I will discuss what conditions might increase the use of magic and witchcraft beliefs, and how these beliefs can enforce normative behaviour. I will start with an examination of the use of magic beliefs in a 1930’s Irish folk medicine archive. Here, my colleagues and I explored what might motivate people to use magic belief by examining how different characteristics of diseases predicted higher instances of magical cures. We found that uncertainty about the cause and pathology of a disease was the primary predictor. Next, I will discuss the role of magic and witchcraft beliefs in supporting and enforcing social norms in a cross-cultural data set. Here, I found evidence that people use reputational information to help decide if other people’s misfortunes was the result of something supernatural. This suggests that these types of beliefs, broadly defined, tap into norm psychology and beliefs about social punishment. Finally, I will present some data from Mauritius on how witchcraft beliefs are used to bolster norms specific to boasting and envy and discuss how these beliefs might enforce different types of normative behaviours from those often associated with religion. Together, these studies begin to create a picture of the psychology underpinning magic and witchcraft beliefs.

Reference

Aiyana Willard (Brunel University London ), “Why believe in magic?”, IAST General Seminar, Toulouse: IAST, March 28, 2023, 11:30–12:30, room Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building).